Diagnostic accuracy of postnatal ultrasound screening for urinary tract abnormalities

The study was aimed at (1) the determination of the incidence of abnormalities of the urinary tract in newborn infants detected by postnatal ultrasound screening, and (2) the evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of postnatal ultrasound screening for detecting surgical urinary tract abnormalities. The prospective study was of full-term neonates born in the University Hospital of Olomouc in 2005–2008 who underwent renal ultrasound screening after 72 h of life. Significant findings were recorded. Subsequent diagnostic and therapeutic procedures were recorded and evaluated in a group of children with detected renal pelvic dilatation (RPD). (1) A total of 6,088 newborn infants was examined. The absolute and relative RPD incidence rates (anteroposterior diameter, APD) were as follows: 5–7 mm, 146 (2.4%); 7–10 mm, 70 (1.15%); 10–15 mm, 13 (0.21%), and 15 mm or more, 5 (0.08%). Of those, 16 children were operated on for abnormalities of the urinary tract, of which nine (56%) had been detected by prenatal screening. Other findings: six cases of unilateral renal agenesis, four cases of multicystic renal dysplasia, four of renal dystopia, one of polycystic kidney disease and one of renal hypoplasia. (2) A group of 224 children with postnatally detected RPD was examined, of whom 40 (17.9%) underwent voiding cystourethrography and/or scintigraphy and 16 (7.1%) were treated surgically. The receiver operating characteristic curves were analyzed, and the areas under the curves were calculated. Postnatal renal ultrasound screening is probably a suitable test for detecting significant urinary tract abnormalities.